During his takeover of the Titan project last year, Kevin Lynch would have assigned his teams of the Special Projects Group the objective of launching a vehicle without steering wheel or pedalsin other words completely autonomous, in 2025. Since then, according to Bloombergthe ambitions of the person who is also responsible for the software of the Apple Watch have been revised downwards, or let’s say that they are more realistic.
Exit la autonomous driving level 5 that no manufacturer has reached, and perhaps never, Apple would be “satisfied” with driving aids on the highway. Probably something like level 3, like what Mercedes and Honda offer on some of their vehicles today.
In addition, Apple would now have the idea of launching this car (with pedal and steering wheel, therefore) during 2026, and probably only in North America the time to improve the driving software. The heart of the vehicle would be a very powerful on-board computer, codenamed Denali (it is the tallest mountain in North America). It would be supported by multiple sensors: cameras, Lidar and radar.
Denali would have the combined power of four M1 Ultra chips, the beefiest today. The computer would be almost in the production phase, adds Bloombergbut Apple might reduce the power history to lower costs.
In addition to computer hardware, the manufacturer would rely on information processing in the cloud, AWS (Amazon) servers would currently be responsible for this operation at a cost of 125 million dollars per year (the Titan project represents an annual investment of $1 billion).
Among the advanced functions of the vehicle, Apple would be interested in the possibility of controlling it remotely. Apple would also consider setting up its own insurance system. The design of the car has not yet been finalized, it should be sometime next year, while the feature set will be decided by the end of 2024. Apple would spend much of the year 2025 to test the car.
Apple obliges, the question of price is crucial and sensitive. Originally, the manufacturer intended to ask $120,000 for his car. But it looks like Apple has come to its senses (so to speak) with a sub-$100,000 price tag, either in the same waters as Tesla’s Model S or Mercedes’ EQS.
Finally, Apple should bring together part of the teams responsible for the Titan project (more than 1,000 people worldwide) within a campus located not far from the airport in San Jose, California. The site was purchased in 2015 and work began last year.
